News

Countries urged to start bargaining over negative emissions

15th August 2017

There is an emerging consensus CO2 needs to be sucked out of the air to meet climate goals, but no discussion of which countries are responsible for acting. Countries need to start negotiating who will take responsibility for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

To hold global warming “well below 2C”, as agreed by world leaders in Paris, models assume “negative emissions” will be deployed on a massive scale. Yet there has been little discussion of how to ramp up the necessary technologies, or who should lead that effort.

Paris climate deal needs to be politically, not legally, binding

27th July 2017

Donald Trump’s announcement that he intends to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement has sparked renewed interest in the question of what the agreement actually requires countries to do.

Most legal analysts, climate negotiators, and other close observers of the process have taken the position that the agreement itself makes emission reduction pledges essentially voluntary, since countries have free rein to set their own targets and policies and are not required to meet the targets they put forward.

Climate threatens ‘Himalayan Viagra’ fungus, and a way of life

26th July 2017

A Himalayan fungus used in Chinese medicine, which underpins the livelihoods of communities of harvesters in Nepal, is under the threat due to climate change.

Harvesting the Cordyceps sinensis fungus, called ‘yarsha gumba’ in Nepal, provides a livelihood for Himalayan dwellers. The fungus fetches up to Rs 2,800,000 (£20,000) per kg in raw form. During the peak season of yarsha collection, locals drop everything to pursue fungus hunting, including their usual profession. Even schools remain closed during yarsha collecting seasons.

Waste management a problem of attitude, not awareness

12th July 2017

If you walk along the streets of Kathmandu, you might no longer see the heaps of waste that used to be a common sight a few years back. The credit largely goes to the fact that Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) started penalizing haphazard waste dumpers.

Even with KMC’s efforts, we still have a long way to go in order to have a clean city. Every person generates about 400 gm of waste, including paper, wrappers, tissues, plastic bags and bottles, each day. These waste materials are carelessly thrown out in the streets.

World has three years left to stop dangerous climate change, warn experts

29th June 2017

Avoiding dangerous levels of climate change is still just about possible, but will require unprecedented effort and coordination from governments, businesses, citizens and scientists in the next three years, a group of prominent experts has warned.

Warnings over global warming have picked up pace in recent months, even as the political environment has grown chilly with Donald Trump’s formal announcement of the US's withdrawal from the Paris agreement. This year’s weather has beaten high temperature records in some regions, and 2014,2015 and 2016 were the hottest years on record.